Most interesting or unusual cold water place you’ve dived?

[Wingy]

This one is on my bucket list.

Mine too! Ultimate bucket list cold dive would be Baffin Island, edge of the ice flow with belugas, narwhals, orcas...cold big stuff. While not "cold" by northern hemisphere standards - Poor Knights in NZ can be very chilly and very awesome

 

[Kensei]

I guess mine was, believe it or not, my OW checkout dive. I had taken a class back in 1982 from a guy named Smokey Roberts who was a WW2 diver. I had completed everything except my OW dive and it was early March in Pennsylvania. Smokey said that normally we would go to a local quarry but it was covered in ice.... so we waited. A few weeks later I get a call from Smokey that the ice had just melted so we could do our checkout dive that weekend. The water temp. was probably just above 32F.

There was a heated changing area at the quarry for us to get into our rented wet suits which were farmer johns with beaver tails. I'm pretty cold tolerant so I don't remember there being a big shock when I went into the water... but it was brisk. Smokey was pretty strict, so we had to do stuff like buddy breathing, removing and putting back on our entire rig underwater, having our mask stripped off unexpectedly and being required to put it on and clear, etc. We weren't cut any slack just because we had on a metric ton of neoprene. Once I had completed my skills test, I swam around with my other classmates. The quarry was about 50 ft. deep and had a little 30 ft. boat sunk on the bottom.

If all of this wasn't strange enough, the most bizarre part of this dive was yet to come. At some point during the dive, I decided to come up to the surface for just for a moment to look around. While I was under water, it had started to snow. So there I am, my first time ever diving in open water, in a wet suit, in probably 34F water and now it's snowing. I floated on the surface for several minutes just taking all of this in before continuing my dive. It's still one of my best diving memories.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Great story, but I have a question. Did you really only have to make one OW dive? I wasn't certified until 1989, but we had three classrooms, three pool sessions and four ocean dives.

 

[bfisher]

I guess mine was, believe it or not, my OW checkout dive. I had taken a class back in 1982 from a guy named Smokey Roberts who was a WW2 diver. I had completed everything except my OW dive and it was early March in Pennsylvania. Smokey said that normally we would go to a local quarry but it was covered in ice.... so we waited. A few weeks later I get a call from Smokey that the ice had just melted so we could do our checkout dive that weekend. The water temp. was probably just above 32F.

There was a heated changing area at the quarry for us to get into our rented wet suits which were farmer johns with beaver tails. I'm pretty cold tolerant so I don't remember there being a big shock when I went into the water... but it was brisk. Smokey was pretty strict, so we had to do stuff like buddy breathing, removing and putting back on our entire rig underwater, having our mask stripped off unexpectedly and being required to put it on and clear, etc. We weren't cut any slack just because we had on a metric ton of neoprene. Once I had completed my skills test, I swam around with my other classmates. The quarry was about 50 ft. deep and had a little 30 ft. boat sunk on the bottom.

If all of this wasn't strange enough, the most bizarre part of this dive was yet to come. At some point during the dive, I decided to come up to the surface for just for a moment to look around. While I was under water, it had started to snow. So there I am, my first time ever diving in open water, in a wet suit, in probably 34F water and now it's snowing. I floated on the surface for several minutes just taking all of this in before continuing my dive. It's still one of my best diving memories.

Smoky was located in Lancaster. He died a few years back and the shop is now closed. By your description it sounds like you did your dives at the Myerstown quarry. Bainbridge is close, too, but the depth there goes to about 100 feet. The open water platforms are at 25/30' though so it may have been there. Bainbridge is now closed to divers now, too. I do most of my business and traveling now with Lancaster Scuba Center--great place with great people.

 

[covediver]

I've been swimming in Pac. Rim National Park. What do you see diving other than sand? You must've found a good day when the ocean was calm.

It was some time ago, nearly 30 years and it included Alberni Inlet. I was on a liveaboard. A wrecked freighter, historic wreck, lots of anenome-covered rock reefs with rockfish, etc. What some would consider typical pacific nw diving, but it was new to me I especially enjoyed the wrecks as I was employed as a maritime historian at the time. Seas were very calm hat August. I was wearing an industrial grade custom two piece wetsuit at the time. Never again.

 

[covediver]

In California,the diving Mecca is Monterey. In the early 1990"s my then buddy and I rented a Pontiac Grand Am and drove up from Los Angeles. We camped in Santa Cruz--great in itself--and dove in Monterey Bay. Water was a crisp 50 degrees. I don't recall the diving as being spectacular, but it was great to visit the area, especially as we were both John Steinbeck fans.

I was diving Big Sur to Monterey in that same time frame. Point Lobos, Butterfly House, Hopkins, Monastery, Mono Lobos pinnacles. great diving.

 

[Kensei]

Great story, but I have a question. Did you really only have to make one OW dive? I wasn't certified until 1989, but we had three classrooms, three pool sessions and four ocean dives.

I think the requirements were the same. I did the same classrooms and pool sessions but only one open water. That only certified me for PADI Basic Diver. I dove all over the place (Bahamas, Florida Keys, Philippines, various Mexico locations, etc.) with that card until about 2013 when dive ops started requiring that I have an OW certification. I would have gotten more advanced certifications sooner but nobody stopped me from going diving with them so I didn't see the point. Since I had many open water dives (some really deep), I now wish I had at least gotten my OW cert. much earlier. I now am AOW.

 

[Kensei]

Smoky was located in Lancaster. He died a few years back and the shop is now closed. By your description it sounds like you did your dives at the Myerstown quarry. Bainbridge is close, too, but the depth there goes to about 100 feet. The open water platforms are at 25/30' though so it may have been there. Bainbridge is now closed to divers now, too. I do most of my business and traveling now with Lancaster Scuba Center--great place with great people.

Yes, I did my course somewhere in Lancaster at an indoor pool. I don't remember the name of the quarry but it was probably Myerstown and it's the only time I've dove in PA. I'm actually going back there next week so I'll be changing my diet to scrapple, shoo-fly pie, corn fritters and cheese steaks. I grew up with Auntie Ann's brother... we were in the same class in high school.

 

[Diesel_Diver]

Passamaquoddy Bay , Just off the Bay of Fundy, has some amazing cold water diving. By cold I mean mid 50’s in the heat of summer. Great drift dives with our extreme tidal range ( worlds highest) . Deer Island offers great drifts and wall dives from shore. Just gotta make sure you have a local guide that knows the area. Miss the exit on one drift and you could end up in the “Old Sow” whirlpool.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You can also make a 30' dive, stay down for a long time and exit without having to swim.